Firefighters pull man, woman from three-alarm blaze in Ashland

Firefighters from at least eight towns spent hours battling a three-alarm blaze at a multi-family home on Main Street Monday night, rescuing two people from the back of the home just before the fire intensified.

By Brad Petrishen/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Brad Petrishen/Daily News staff

Posted Feb. 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 12, 2013 at 12:04 PM

By Brad Petrishen/Daily News staff

Posted Feb. 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 12, 2013 at 12:04 PM

ASHLAND

» Social News

Firefighters from at least eight towns spent hours battling a three-alarm blaze at a multi-family home on Main Street Monday night, rescuing two people from the back of the home just before the fire intensified.

“My guys saved lives (tonight),” Lt. David Iarussi said after the fire had been knocked down at around 1:45 a.m. “They did a great job.”

Firefighters and police responded to the four-family home at 289 Main St.. at around 11 p.m., Iarussi said, and immediately spotted a man waving his arms at a smoke-filled window on the top floor.

Firefighters Peter Stone and Jim Claflin quickly planted and scampered up a ladder near a fire escape at the rear of the home, Iarussi said, pulling the man from a window and bringing him down the ladder to safety.

Standing outside the home with a large white blanket draped around her neck, Elizabeth Gonzalez said she and her brother – the man who was taken out the window – awoke to the smell of smoke and the sound of an alarm.

Gonzalez said she at first tried to get out the front of her apartment, however decided against it when she touched the door handle and it was hot.

She said she and her brother went to the kitchen window, where she managed to climb out and down the fire escape as firefighters assisted her brother.

Iarussi said Ashland police officers Robert Araujo and Michael Vinciulla as well as Sgt. Brendan Ellis helped Gonzalez get down from the fire escape safely, as its lowest rung was still several feet from the ground.

“At that point the fire burst into flames around the back of the house,” Iarussi said, and firefighters began the arduous task of knocking it down.

It took three alarms and more than two hours before the fire was officially under control, Iarussi said. As of about 2 a.m. the cause of the fire was still being investigated, and members of the State Fire Marshal’s office had been called.

Iarussi said the home was framed in an older style called balloon framing, which he said makes things much tougher on firefighters hunting the blaze inside the walls and ceiling.

“We had to chase the fire for many hours,” he said. Firefighters could be seen poking numerous holes through walls as smoke poured out the home’s windows.

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The smell of thick, heavy smoke lingered in the area, and a good many neighbors stood outside their homes watching with concern as firefighters cut a hole in the roof at about 12:30 a.m.

For about 30 seconds, flamed poured out of the hole before burning out.

Iarussi said he did not have an exact number, but estimated that at least eight people were in the home at the time of the fire. Gonzalez said she believed as many as four other women lived in the building, and everyone – including three ferrets and a dog – got out safely.

“It was scary,” said Gonzalez, who said she just moved into the home two months ago.

Iarussi said he had not immediately been told what accommodations had been made for the displaced residents. He said he couldn’t yet say whether the house would be a total loss. However, he said residents would likely be displaced for a very long time.

The building is valued at $247,300 per Ashland’s online assessor database. The property was last sold for $320,000 in 2010, the record shows.

Departments at the scene included Framingham – which sent an engine and a ladder truck – along with Southborough, Hopkinton, Holliston, Sherborn, Milford and Natick.

Iarussi said the two people rescued did inhale some smoke, however were expected to be OK. He said at least one of the two was taken to MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham as a precaution.

Iarussi expected firefighters would need to work into the morning to stabilize the building, which looked from the outside to have suffered extensive damage.

Nearly every window had been punched out by firefighters, and smoke had been billowing out many of those windows for hours before things calmed down and neighbors went back inside their homes.

Brad Petrishen can be reached at 508-490-7463 or bpetrishen@wickedlocal.com. For news throughout the day, follow him on Twitter @Brad_Petrishen.